EUROCRATS TOLD: KEEP DODGING TAXES Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has an EU pension of around £96,000 a year

Tuesday July 10,2012

Eurocraten dictators betalen geen belasting.

EUROPEAN judges have thwarted an attempt to force retired Eurocrats to pay income tax on their Brussels pensions, it emerged yesterday.

A ruling by the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice upheld the long-held exemption that spares former EU officials from paying national taxes on their EU earnings.

Instead, they pay a special low-rate EU community tax that starts at just eight per cent.

It means former EU commissioners, including Lord Kinnock and Lord Mandelson, can receive their five-figure taxpayer-funded pensions at far lower tax rates than are paid by other British citizens.

The decision is bound to infuriate millions of pensioners.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, said: “Tax, for Eurocrats, is something that happens to other people.”

Robert Oxley, Campaign Manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Taxpayers are fed up of funding the lavish lifestyle of EU staff while having to tighten their own belts at home. This ruling is further evidence that the EU elite is out of touch with reality.”

This ruling is further evidence that the EU elite is out of touch with realityRobert Oxley, Campaign Manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance The row follows growing concern at the spiralling cost of retirement deals for former EU bureaucrats.

Recent research showed that European taxpayers are now spending £1billion a year on pensions for retired officials. British taxpayers contributed around £135million in 2010.

The Luxembourg court ruling upholds a “privileges and immunities” protocol that dates back more than 50 years.

It was made in response to an attempt by French tax authorities in Eure-et-Loire to impose a “solidarity wealth tax” on two retired EU officials living in France.

Tax inspectors claimed that the EU pensions of the pair, a married couple, should be taken into account in calculating their tax liability.